Vredendal is a town in the northern Olifants River Valley and southern Namaqualand

Namaqualand

Namaqualand is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of 170,000 square miles/440,000 km². It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into two portions - Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the...

 districts in the Western Cape

Western Cape

The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...

 province of South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. It is the administrative and commercial center for the surrounding area and is the seat of the Matzikama Local Municipality

Matzikama Local Municipality

Matzikama Municipality is a local municipality located within the West Coast District Municipality, in the Western Cape province of South Africa. As of 2007, it had a population of 46,362 . Its municipality code is WC011.-Government:...

 with a population of 13,666. Vrendendal means "peaceful glen" in Afrikaans

Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

 and is directly on the banks of the Olifants River.

It is on the boundary between the Mediterranean climate

Mediterranean climate

A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...

 to the south and the semi-arid

Semi-arid

A semi-arid climate or steppe climate describes climatic regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not extremely...

climate towards the north. Winters are mild with occasional rainy days. The summers can be warm to very hot and very dry.